This is in no way a guarantee against surveillance or even compromise, really. We already know blanket persistent monitoring exists so all communication is already collected between your hosted services and any others outside your network. All unencrypted data is analysed in near-real-time and encrypted data is stored for later analysis.
If you're interesting enough to state actors, there's not much you can do.
It's not a guarantee, but on the other hand it does give you stronger Fourth Amendment rights (if the NSA is what you're worried about as opposed to Russia or China, at least).
That's true. What you spend in time and effort, you do gain in less ambiguous legal protections.
I'll add that you do get to control the features you're presented with and your privacy is better shielded from commercial interests. The benefits are many compared to the relative inconvenience and cost.
